HBO Vague But Enthusiastic About Future Of Game Of Thrones

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Yep, a second series is assured, but how long can the show last, and if it does have a long run what if they run out of books to film?

Game Of Thrones has been wildly successful. HBO execs love it. The future looks rosy. But those execs aren’t promising anything beyond a second series, even though they’d love it to go on and on and on…

Speaking at the network’s autumn preview for the press, president of programming Michael Lombardo said, “I don’t know where the show for us ends as opposed to the books. We’re doing this without any predetermined number of seasons.... I think the challenge for us is always, how long do the creators want to stay with the show? Dan [B Weiss] and David [Benioff] have signed on for a couple of years and we’re going to have those conversations with them every couple years.”

But on a more optimistic note, he added. “I hope it lasts for 20 years. I promise you we won’t stop it before it’s ready to stop... There’s a great relationship fans have with the show and we appreciate that.”

The HBO bosses didn't, however, put the kibosh on future seasons going on for more than 10 episodes, saying they wouldn't be able to do more without lengthy delays or diluting the quality of the stories.

Of course, there is another potential problem if the show goes on for a long run (and we hope it does if it maintains its quality). Season one was based on the first book in the A Song Of Ice And Fire series, so it would be sensible to assume that the show will continue to adapt a book per season. But can some of those massive later books actually be condensed into 10 episodes? And author George RR Martin is notorious for the lomger (and getting longer) gaps between books, so there’s the possibility the show could run out of books to adapt (the fifth of seven has just been published). What would happen then? Would the show start “doing its own thing”? Would the show wrap up with a cliffhanger? Or would they write a different more conclusive ending? Or would HBO simply put the series on hold until each subsequent book came out and then adapt them as and when?